


(Golden, Golden) Take Me Back To The Light

by dressedupasmyself



Series: 30 Days of Klaroline (June 2020) [13]
Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Caroline is sick of it, Caroline saves Klaus, Changelings, F/M, Fairies, Fairy dust is just glorified glitter, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24830188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dressedupasmyself/pseuds/dressedupasmyself
Summary: The vampire’s eyes were wide, and he tried to pry her hands from his throat.“Oh, stop fighting!” she complained, increasing the pressure of her thumb against his windpipe. She ignored the flecks of glitter that transferred to his skin. “Tell me what you know about Klaus Mikaelson and I’ll let you go.” She gestured down at her feet with her free hand. “It’s not like I enjoy soiling up these shoes. They’re Louis Vuitton, you know.”And so he told her, and the hunt began.
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson
Series: 30 Days of Klaroline (June 2020) [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770547
Comments: 5
Kudos: 105





	(Golden, Golden) Take Me Back To The Light

**Author's Note:**

> So... Klaus is a fairy because I'm self-indulgent like that.

The rumours started as a whisper.

“Did you hear what happened to Klaus Mikaelson?” was enough for Caroline to pin the unsuspecting, slightly drunk baby vampire to the wall of the bar.

“Tell me,” she growled out.

She always had operated best when pushed. She’d left Mystic Falls when she recognised that even though she saved her friends from the ever-looming evilness of the Originals, even though she endured unspeakable torture time and time again, they were never going to return the favour.

She deserved better than that. It had taken her fifty years, but she was more in control than ever before. Except, of course, when it came to the one person who had always managed to crawl under her skin and peel away her carefully constructed layers.

The vampire’s eyes were wide, and he tried to pry her hands from his throat.

“Oh, stop fighting!” she complained, increasing the pressure of her thumb against his windpipe. She ignored the flecks of glitter that transferred to his skin. “Tell me what you know about Klaus Mikaelson and I’ll let you go.” She gestured down at her feet with her free hand. “It’s not like I _enjoy_ soiling up these shoes. They’re Louis Vuitton, you know.”

And so he told her, and the hunt began.

She found Rebekah first, conveniently located in the largest mansion in Milan.

“This is not surprising at all.” Caroline folded her arms across her chest, smirk firmly in place. “But were the models really necessary?”

Rebekah seemed to be bored enough not to even bother flicking her gaze all the way in Caroline’s direction.

“They all resemble me,” Caroline had thought they all looked eerily similar, “It’s the only way for me to be sure that I pick the optimum clothing for my body type.”

Caroline stepped into the room, pleasantly surprised to find that she needed no invitation. She passed the make-shift runway, eyeing a flowy blue dress. A lot could be said about Rebekah’s tastes in men, but she had an unmatched eye for fabrics.

“So I was minding my own business,” Caroline said, “You know, drinking, playing darts, snacking on the bartender.” She stopped next to Rebekah and helped herself to the glass of champagne that sat untouched on the small table. “When I overheard the most curious piece of gossip regarding a certain blond, _infuriating_ , yet sometimes well-meaning brother of yours.”

Rebekah stilled, then before Caroline knew what was happening, she found herself pressed face first into the wall.

“What do you know about Nik?”

“It’s ironic,” Caroline gasped, “This feels very similar to the conversation I had with the bearer of said gossip. It’s not as pleasant on this side, I must say.”

Rebekah released her slowly, and Caroline turned quickly, eyes glinting. “Where is he?”

Rebekah paled, and when she fell back down in her chair, it was with such utter defeat that Caroline found it hard to look at her.

“We don’t know.”

Caroline rubbed at her shoulder with a wince. “Were the dramatics really necessary?”

At Rebekah’s glare, she held up her hands.

“Fine, that was a stupid question.”

Rebekah quirked two fingers in the direction of a stoic, extremely handsome gentleman, who produced two clean champagne flutes that he filled from a bottle that looked as if it cost more than all of Caroline’s internal organs put together.

At Rebekah’s indicative nod, Caroline took the seat next to her, and accepted one of the glasses from the compelled eye-candy.

“Tell me what happened.”

Elijah was in New Orleans, snapping into his phone about a legal matter that Caroline had no interest in.

She leaned against the wall with an impatient sigh as she waited for him to finish, and he eyed her with thinly veiled curiosity. When he finally hung up, he turned his regal attention completely on her. It was more unnerving than the raw, burning passion Klaus always exuded. Elijah was in complete control of his every move. If he decided to kill her, there would be no changing his mind.

“Caroline Forbes. What a delightful surprise.”

She fixed him with her best ‘get shit done’ stare. “Where’s Klaus?”

Elijah’s eyes narrowed. “Why would you think that I would, for a single second, abandon my brother to a lifetime of suffering, if I had even an inkling of where to find him?”

“Well, clearly you’re not trying particularly hard,” she snapped.

Elijah’s face morphed into something truly terrifying, and Caroline took a startled step back.

“I have searched to the very ends of the earth for even the smallest trace of Niklaus. I’ve burned out entire covens as they spent every last drop of their magic and their lives looking for a sign that my brother is still alive. There are thousands of people on every continent compelled to bring me _any_ whisper of information they might stumble upon. So don’t you barge into my city and tell me _that I’m not trying.”_

“Is it _really_ your city?” Caroline asked carefully, already over her moment of weakness. Elijah wouldn’t hurt her. Not when she was his best chance at locating Klaus. “From what I’ve heard, your family’s weird obsession with this place is what started this mess in the first place. Like, you have the entire world at your disposal. Just pick _anywhere else_.”

Elijah looked down. “And what would you know about leaving your home behind, Caroline Forbes? Is this the first time you’ve set foot outside of your dreadful town?”

Caroline felt herself bristle. “You think you’re so clever, and that you’ve got me all figured out.” Elijah met her gaze head on, proving her right. “But I haven’t been home in _half a century_. I don’t even think I can call it home anymore, actually, for all the fucks that I give about it. All I want to know is where I can find your brother.”

Elijah’s eyes narrowed. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

Caroline felt her anger drain out of her, leaving only the frantic feeling of her heart beating in her ears.

“I know how it feels,” she admitted, “to be held against your will, suffering, with no hope of escape. I owe Klaus this much, for all the times he’s opened a vein for me.”

“And is that your only motivation?” Elijah’s voice was careful, eyes lingering on the very obvious gold of her skin. “A debt?”

Caroline shrugged, not willing to admit to anything else. “Just tell me what you know.”

She had to drag Freya’s unconscious body from a frat party in New York.

It took a little blood, a greasy breakfast and two pots of coffee before she was coherent enough to listen to Caroline.

“Who are you?” Freya asked halfway through her explanation.

Caroline shot her an impatient look. “Seriously? Keep up. I’m looking for Klaus, and I need your help.”

Freya snorted, letting her forehead rest against the palm of her hand. “Good luck with that. I’ve tried everything.”

“No, you haven’t.”

At Caroline’s complete lack of doubt, Freya’s eyes seemed to finally lose their glassiness.

“What are you talking about?”

Caroline leaned slightly forward. “Can’t you see it?”

Freya frowned, lifting her head. She stared at Caroline, unblinking, and it took a few moments before her eyes widened and she sat back in her seat. Caroline knew what she saw. She _glowed_ ; had been ever since the bargain she’d made with Klaus in the woods.

“He claimed you.”

Caroline couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the ridiculous notion. The only reason she was even entertaining the possibility was because it could be their only hope at ever finding him. “It would seem so.”

Freya’s fingers twitched. “I still need a starting point.”

“I’m so glad you brought that up.”

Caroline produced a map, a sharpie and a faded gold coin.

Klaus was packed into a hollow block made of five feet of concrete, filled with water.

Caroline ripped through the concrete easily enough, and when the water started leaking all over the floor, she shared a wary glance with Freya.

“Iron.”

Caroline pulled faster, and soon she was faced with an unconscious, desiccated version of Klaus Mikaelson.

“How long has he been in here?” Caroline asked quietly. She smoothed away any stray pieces of concrete that still clung to his blistering skin. It was obvious that the iron concentration in the water had hurt him. If he hadn’t been half vampire, Caroline knew he’d have been long-dead.

Freya knelt next to her, a single flick of her wrist revealing a bent, shrivelled up shadow of the wings Caroline had only been privileged enough to see once before. She reached out to carefully untangle them from each other, even though she doubted it would do much good.

“I would assume the better part of thirty-nine years,” Freya said. “We need to get him home.”

Caroline winced at the sharp pressure against her wrist. She was careful not to spill any blood on the white sheets of the hotel.

Klaus had been in Budapest, and she and Freya had agreed that waking Klaus needed to be their first priority. They’d tried blood bags, the room service attendant, magic and even just slapping Klaus about, when they’d grown desperate.

That, of course, was when Caroline remembered the old stories her grandmother used to tell her. _Changelings_ , she’d say, _they need their own to survive._

And as she watched her own blood drip onto the grey of Klaus’s lips, she found herself hoping that her Scottish grandmother hadn’t been insane.

The colour started from his mouth, spreading across his face and down his neck. His teeth dug into her skin, eyes opening slowly. She let him drink until the paper-thin, silky texture of his wings smoothed out against the sheets.

She took her arm back with a frown. “You owe me at least seven different explanations.

“I won’t be anyone’s property,” Caroline said firmly.

Klaus buttoned up his shirt, shower-soaked hair dripping down his back. Freya hadn’t put the glamour back up, and Caroline found the absent-minded flutter of wings hard to ignore.

She tried her best, determined not to lose the argument she’d spent five decades running from.

“Thank you, sweetheart.” Klaus turned to her, expression unbearably soft. “For coming to get me.”

Caroline huffed. “Yes, fine, whatever. I figured I owed you for allowing me some superior fairy healing when I’ve needed it in the past. Now, back to what I was saying.”

Klaus lowered himself onto the bed next to her and picked up her hand. He examined the way she seemed to glitter extra badly at his proximity.

“I would never reduce you to mere _property_ , Caroline. This,” he turned her hand over, “is an indication of how much of me you’ve already claimed for yourself. I run through your veins, love, as you do mine.”

“Glitter is tacky,” she said, processing his revelation.

“Caroline.”

She looked up, and she saw blue eyes, blue wings, blue shirt.

“I’ll let you go, if that’s what you wish. One last time, I will allow you to walk away from me without any fuss. Just know that next time our paths cross, I plan on making you keep me.”

Caroline reached out to touch his cheek, making a snap decision that really couldn’t be considered ‘snap’, since it had been brewing in her mind for the past fifty years.

“It has become clear to me,” she spoke slowly, “that your entire family falls apart without you. And since you seem unable to keep yourself from being kidnapped the moment I take my eyes off you, I suspect it would be to everyone’s benefit if I didn’t stray too far away.”

Klaus’s eyes flashed silver. “Don’t joke.”

She steeled herself. “I’m not.”

The fear she’d felt when she heard that he’d been missing was unlike any other she’d experienced in her life. No matter how far she ran, she could do nothing about the fact that Klaus had wormed his way into her heart, left her dazed and shimmering and missing him.

Klaus’s lips landed beneath her ear, and he spoke against her skin with a faint exhale. “My previous offer is off the table. _Stay_ , Caroline, _please._ ”

She kissed him, and if they left the housekeeping department with the unfortunate job of getting fairy dust out of the carpet, then so be it.


End file.
